Alright so got a 94 auto. Finally got the money saved up to start changing some things around. Bought myself magnaflow mufflers and know that I'll probably have resonance issues as that seems to be the general consensus and heard an x pipe was most effective way to do away with that. Any advice weather to let exhaust shop weld a magnaflow one in or what location along pipes works best? Also, and I know I'm going to get reamed for this so be easy all... Looking at vortex rammer and big mouth air dam, if nothing else for cooling effects. More questionable is the combination of smooth air couplers, airfoil, and possible larger maf housing. I know the tune on most aftermarket maf is basically useless however they are larger diameter and if the housing is larger wouldn't it be negated by having stock size maf? If used will the stock accordian or smooth couplers work fit? I'm working on a serious budget here and am hoping, despite people looking down on those parts, that the combo should do more then enough good. I know looking at the total package is only effective way of modifying an engine Not aiming for 450hp but ran a 13.4 with somehow no wheel spin and figure this combo should have me knocking on 12's. Otherwise, any helpful or real world advice is welcome. Thanks.

 

If you want 12's I'd change the stall converter out to something higher. Deeper gears will drop your 60' times (if you can hook'em)but may hurt your top end. Also stick to proven +HP mods: headers, higher lift cams (unless you go with spray or forced induction) and head work. It is your car do what you want but know that if you spend a lot of time at the track making loads of passes you car will break eventually......so save some cash for repairs down the road.

 

So many of these bolt-ons are WAY off $ for HP. At what you are running now, headers and a 2800 stall converter would get you damn close if not in the 12's I bet. The gears as stated above would be my next change I think. If you don't do a lot of highway driving the damage should be minimal. Moving to 3:73:1 or even 4.10's will net you some nice time off that next slip.

 

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that you can get stall converters that still have a lockup clutch in them. This will give you the advantage of a stall converter but with all the advantages of a lockup.

 

Yes, and there in lies the two biggest problems. Had the car two years now and been to the drags for 3 passes. Got around 101,000 miles on it now, went through whole optispark replacement(spark plugs and wires, water pump, distributor, and belts) yet no mechanical engine problems and not a thing wrong with trans surprisingly. I'm 20 with respect for car but do have fun. Sadly my glorious(to me for an auto) 19 mpg average I'm def concerned with, though not as much as last summer. 3.07 gear change would be low as I'd go and be good for me probably for sotp feeling but change would probably not worth the money vs going lower gears. Headers are def my number one part id consider but again, wasn't looking for 450hp car cause car of this mileage wont last so dunno if that would even be too much. Really not sure limits the car can go right now with mileage but hey that's what the other back up account is for... just in case.

 

lol, well for around $300 you can just put a 100hp shot of nitrous on it and keep everything else pretty much the same. This is considered well within the limits of the engine, meaning it's not going to cause any undo wear or stress above what it is already happening with racing it. 100hp shot should get you pretty close to your 12sec wants without corrupting anything else.

 

A 100 shot will not get him close to the 12's. It will get him close to the 11's. My ride picked up a solid second in the 1/4, and 9 mph.
With a 150 shot, my 13.5 na run dropped to 11.70.

 

Pete thats impressive. Are you spraying at the starting line ? I did a lot of work to get my 87 into the 12s.
Oh yea, I just noticed your new location. We are in the same city.

 

Well this is true I am not taking the weight into consideration. It dropped .4 off my 79' Camaro, but that was in El Paso at 115F deg. too.

 

I usually whack the button just before the 1-2 shift, if the track will hold. If the track is greasy, I will hit it immediately after the shift into second, and usually lose 2 tenths.
If the track wont hold it after the second gear shift, I turn the bottle off for the night. In pa, the dew would settle on the track shortly after dusk. That always made it interesting. After changing lanes quickly, I learned my lesson.

 

Nothing wrong with the magnaflows.I would change the stock resonator with an aftermarket one that flows better or put an x-pipe in place of it.With stock manifolds and cats I doubt you will have much(if any) resonance.Pm me if you need a resonator I have several.
A cut air box lid and a K&N will porbably be the most efficient air intake mod.
I bought one of the ported maf housings and descreened the stock maf and used it.Did it help?Who knows.
I have the BMAD as well and can't say that it lowered my temps any but it will cool down quicker after sitting in traffic.Make sure you clean the trash from the radiator well.With 100k I bet it is fairly clogged(fins on rad. too)with leaves and debris.
You can spend alot of money on headers but I don't think it is worth it on a stock heads/cam car.
I would consider some 1.6 roller rockers with some new valve springs,maybe an electric water pump,and some 3.07 gears.
These will help performance alot but won't adversely affect driveability or mileage under normal driving conditions.
If you change gears or converter you will likely have wheelspin so have drag radials in the budget.
I waisted a bunch of money on stuff that did'nt do squat because I did'nt know better.I have tried to save you that pain.lol

 

You are getting good advice here. My $.02 for what it is worth would to stay away from the "feel good" mods like the air foil and similar crap. Those are great things to do if you want to "feel" lilke you modded your car

If you want stock drivability with a low ET for bragging rights save up and throw a quality spray on it. It will drive stock, keep the good MPG, and will be there when you want it. Once you save more a set of headers, Good filter, and some 1.6 are the next logical power adds from a budget standpoint. Gears are a better choice but they will definately have an impact on your MPG.

Good Luck

 

I like to run the 1/8th mile at the nearby track, but am too lazy to drive 1 1/2hrs to a 1/4 mile track. Mine is a 95 coupe, LT1, A4 with 212,000 original miles. A gear swap from the factory 2.59 to a 3.07 (D36) knocked a full 1/2 second off my times and only hurt the MPG by dropping from 22.8 to 21.7 total average. I have stock exhaust with muffler deletes and am about to replace the resonator with a Magnaflow dual in/out. Otherwise I have an electric water pump, custom tune, slp claw intake, and am running 18" BFG DRs on C5 widespoke wheels. I just added the smooth intake couplers and an air foil (no laughter please, it was cheap and easy). Best time so far is 8.59, best mph was 88, but done until spring time now.

 

I swapped my cut stock airbox for the vortex rammer several months ago. It definately didn't hurt any, and it seems to put up a little better numbers. Maybe a whole tenth, maybe half a tenth, depending on weather. Seems to be a bit more sensitive to temperature changes with the vortex setup. I'd have to say there are probably better ways to spend the money Breathless wants for it. As for quality/durability, I'm a little disappointed. It's thin plastic. A little stronger than a milk jug, but not as strong as I'd expect. And the customer service was bit of let down too. I placed my order directly with Breathless over the phone and was told they had the product in stock and it would ship that day (Monday) and arrive by Friday. By Wednesday, I had no shipment confirmation in my email, so I called Breathless. I was told that after I placed my order, that same day they got a big order from one of their vendors and shipped all the stock they had. Mine was placed on backorder indefinately until they could make more. A week later, they finally shipped it but refused to even pay for expedited shipping to make up for giving the part I already payed for to another customer. In fact, they refused to acknowledge that there was anything wrong with the way they handled my order.

I'm not saying don't use their product, it works fine. I'm just saying, if I was running a company selling an overpriced piece of flimsy plastic, I'd at least try to treat my customers a little more fairly. Be prepared for poor customer service, and don't expect the vortex airbox to feel as solid as the rest of the plastic on the car.

As for other ways to spend the money, I'm kinda wishing I'd have gone with some long tube headers or a torque converter or electric water pump now. I'm thinking either of these would have made more of a difference in my 1/4 mile time, and I have to do them this winter anyway to compliment the top end work I'm doing.

As for MPG, at some point you will have to decide if you're willing to give up a couple miles per gallon to make any serious gains. But these LT1/LT4 cars do amazingly well on gas even with some pretty serious hp. 400+ crank hp and 20+ mpg highway is not a completely unreasonable target for these cars. The newer LS engines are even more incredible.

One more piece of real world experience, if wheelspin is at all a concern get a nice set of drag radials or other sticky tires as soon as you can. If you're driving it every day, the drag radials might be a bit impractical, but there are still some fairly sticky options that will give you 15k+ miles and outperform the original type tires that came on the car by a long shot.

 

gears + TC = mid to high 12s

 

This should get you into the 12's...
3.07 gear
Quality 2800 stall and sticky tires
EM LT headers
1.6 rr
EWP
Custom tune
A little weight reduction

Or even lower with....
100+ shot of N2O
Ported heads and cam
Stroker motor




FYI: My power couplers ripped like most others have with just over a year of use. I heard the vortex breaks easily also. The plastic midamerica larger MAF housing showed 9hp in one of the car mags but it's debatable. IOW it could have been from a change in the reading that leans out the mixture. The same that can be done in a tune.

 

Thanks all. Actually more feedback then I was expecting. So seems vortex is worth it just, basically god help me if I were to drop it. Found it for 270 shipped from corvette America so that's probably cheapest without coupons to other sites. So bottles aside (kinda like the whole no strings attached legal anywhere), seems attacking the intake and (most) exhaust is def cheaper, but far from most effective. So probably my best bet is to elleviate my issue with worrying about things breaking, changing out rear with new dana 36 and 3.07, putting in a higher torque converter followed by a tune sound about right?

 

sounds good to me I hate the drone in mine so bad that I am putting stock mufflers back on lol. I also didnt think they did much good I still ran a 14.1 w/ aftermarket exhaust and tune, maybe some of that was weather and driver but I was disappointed. If I could do it all over again I would swap out stock c4 for c6 tips, put an x pipe in place of the resonator and call it done, maybe take out the cats (mine doesnt have them) buy a tq converter from either edge or petek which I have heard a lot of good things about and maybe go up to 3.07. if all you want is to hit 12's try just gears or tq converter first and see how it goes. pcmforless.com will flash your comp for less than $200 I think... so that means 12's for a grand total of maybe 1000 or less and no drone

 

also were you completely stock when you ran the 13.4 that is pretty impressive in itself, best I have done is 13.6 (g tech) w/ a lot of wheel spin... but I have a tune, x pipe, no cats, muffs and all of the other worthless bolt ons. I think stock a 94 auto should run a 14.1 correct me if I am wrong thanks!

 

13.4 is very impressive. You are getting some great advice from the above replies.
If you are trying to save some money, before you spend $270.00, you could try this method for cooler air(DIY). See below.